


these green fruits will remain sour

by magicites



Category: Kamen Rider Gaim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Fusion, Inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Monster people are great!, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25059151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicites/pseuds/magicites
Summary: “Kaito went to Helheim,” Kouta says. “Mai, he went to Helheim.”People have gone into Helheim before. No one ever returned as a person. If you’re lucky enough to escape, then it’s only ever as a monster.That doesn’t scare her. She’s always danced close to the plants. “Then we go get him back.”
Relationships: Kazuraba Kouta/Kumon Kaito/Takatsukasa Mai
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Toku Poly Ficathon 2020





	these green fruits will remain sour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hikaristudio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikaristudio/gifts).



> THIS IS FOR YOU JAZ!!!!!!! you are so so so fantastic and you deserve the world!!! i hope u enjoy this lil fic.... and ignore the fact that i haven't seen gaim in ages. this was fun to write and as u know i love that dreamy myth shit.
> 
> yeah!!!!

They told him not to go.

The forests of Helheim border the city. Vines pulsing with an inhuman light curl around tree branches Mai used to dance under as a girl. Kumon Kaito’s shy eyes watch her every move. She had invited him to play with her, but all he ever did was shake his head and murmur a refusal.

When the leaves started to encroach, he’d pluck Helheim’s leaves with his bare hands so she could dance without fear. “I’m not strong like you,” he told her once. “You bring life when you dance. You bring joy. All I can do is this,” he had said, and broke another purple branch even as the bark rendered his hands bloody and raw.

Then Kouta crashed into their lives, gallant and kind and true, and they struggled to realign themselves. Two does not stretch to three so easily. Even as Kouta learned to dance with her, his feet tracing the paths she led them down with ease, Kaito must have burned. She had seen him dancing, once or twice, hidden in the forest when he thought she wasn’t there. His steps were clumsy, unsure, but they were steps all the same. 

The years stretched on between them all. Kaito’s determination was not enough to push Helheim back. The spot where she had once danced is overtaken by Helheim’s disease, eager to steal the humanity of any person foolish enough to come close. The townsfolk feared the forest. Mai and Kouta learned to avoid it, remembering the way those vines would crawl along Kaito’s tattered shoes in retaliation for what he did to them. 

They’re adults now, or something close enough to be mistaken as such. Mai’s dances take her to stages. The music leads her steps, just as she leads Kouta’s. They dance for the heavens above, for the ground below, and for the people at the foot of the stage, always cheering them on. 

Kaito watches from the sidelines, his arms folded and his face twisted in a scowl. He dances now, from time to time, but his steps are harsh, uncoordinated. He once told Mai that she dances as if floating above the ground; Kaito dances like he’s trying to punish the earth below his feet. For all she’s tried, she can’t synchronize their steps. They don’t work together that way. 

Instead, Kaito stands on the sidelines, and he watches. He watches until Helheim breaches the edge of the city and takes over the new stage Mai’s claimed for herself and Kouta. 

So they retreat further into the city. They find a new stage to dance on. This one creaks under their feet from their weight, but for as long as it stands, they will dance. 

Kaito does not come to their next performance. Kouta takes the helm, searching through the city for any sign of where he’s gone. He’s never missed a performance before. He wouldn’t do it on purpose.

Mai lets Kouta go, half-listening to all his complaints of how  _ Kaito is such an idiot!  _ And  _ What does he think he’s doing, that moron!  _ He comes back the next night, a graveness to his face that she’s unused to seeing.

“He went to Helheim,” he says. “Mai, he went to Helheim.”

People have gone into Helheim before. No one ever returned as a person. If you’re lucky enough to escape, then it’s only ever as a monster.

That doesn’t scare her. She’s always danced close to the plants. “Then we go get him back.”

They set out the next evening, hand-in-hand. “The key to getting through Helheim is to not let it touch you,” Kouta says. He pierces her with a grin. “Think of it like a dance, Mai. Just until we find Sagara.”

They enter the woods with light, steady steps. Mai lets go of Kouta’s hand as she ducks under low-hanging branches and weaves through leaves dyed in sickly hues of purple and green. “Kouta, how do you know where Sagara is?” she asks.

He pauses just long enough to toss her a sunshine-filled grin. “I don’t!”

“Then…”

“He’ll find us eventually. He knows we’re looking for him. We’ll keep going until he does,” Kouta says. Mai finds it hard to believe his words, but she’s always trusted his determination. She chooses to trust him now. 

They keep going. The forest grows denser, more dangerous. Stems reach towards them like collectors searching for rare dolls. Mai feels like a trophy piece, something to hang and display on a wall for others to gaze at. It makes her skin crawl.

She keeps moving for Kaito’s sake. Even when the forest grows so dense that every breath has to be carefully measured lest she run into a fluorescent bloom, she keeps moving.

They walk for so long.

Eventually the cover of trees break, leading them into a dark cave. The forest seems to pause here. Moss clings to the rock walls of the cave’s mouth, but they dare not enter within.

Mai and Kouta exchange glances, both knowing who must wait within.

Sagara is not human, but he looks like one for their sake. 

“You want Kaito back, eh?” he asks, twirling a fruit in his hands. He mimes throwing it to Kouta, who steps back with a gasp then immediately glares at the creature. 

“He belongs with us,” Mai says. “He isn’t yours to keep.”

Sagara grins. “He was the one who stepped into my forest. Of course his soul is mine.” 

“He was ours first!” Kouta says. “Please. We want to bring him home.” Then Kouta launches into an explanation. He weaves every word with all the love they hold for Kaito in his stories. He speaks of their first meetings, of their tentative draw towards one another, of a rivalry that bloomed to a trust born of spilled blood.

“Kaito pushes, Kouta pulls, and I dance,” Mai says. “That’s how it’s meant to be.”

She watches Sagara’s face carefully. He doesn’t know how to be human. He wears his grin too low and too crooked. Hope flares in her chest when he laughs. “You truly care for him,” Sagara says. “You wouldn’t risk your life beg for his otherwise.”

“He needs to come home,” Mai says. “He’s spent so long trying to keep us safe. I want to return the favor.”

“You humans always astound me,” Sagara says. “Every time I think I have you figured out, I’m proven wrong!”

He snaps his fingers. The branches part, and a monster made of leaves stumbles towards them. It’s tall like Kaito, covered in a deep red ivy that pulses with the same glow as the rest of the forest.

“Kaito!?” Mai and Kouta ask in unison, their steps in sync as they crowd closer to him. He raises a hand in defense, thorned fingertips posed as if ready to strike. He doesn’t have eyes like this — he barely has anything close to his face — but she knows that he can’t recognize them.

“Don’t worry, he’s still your Kumon Kaito. Lead him out of the forest and he’ll be yours. As you go, the leaves will fall from him. He’ll be human by the time you leave. But…”

“But?” Kouta asks.

“But! If you look back at him to confirm, then he’ll be mine forever. If you care for him, then you must trust him, right? All you have to do is hold his hand and move forward. It’s simple.”

They know it is anything but. 

“We’ll do it,” Mai says. Slowly, like finding an injured wolf, she approaches Kaito. “Kaito, it’s me, Mai,” she says softly. “The dancing girl. Remember? I’m here to take you home.”

She takes his hand, smiling through the bite of thorns in her skin. Her fights were never meant to be physical ones. Her flesh gives too easily.

Kouta takes his other hand. He looks at Mai, and they both nod. “What else do we have to do?” Kouta asks.

Sagara grins. “Walk, and don’t look back.” With a wave of his hand, the branches twist out of the way, giving them a clear path forward.

Mai tightens her grip on Kaito’s hand. She has no way of knowing if Sagara is telling the truth. Even if this is Kaito, how can they be certain he’ll be human when they leave the forest? They can’t look back at him. 

She takes a deep breath. Steadies herself. This is just another dance. She’s never had to search for Kaito on the sidelines; she’s always trusted that he’d be there, watching her. She could lose herself in the steps.

Kouta glances back at what may be Kaito nervously. “Mai… are we ready?”

She smiles at him. “Look at me, Kouta. Nothing else.”

They walk. The forest parts for them, as if taunting their foolish attempt to take Kaito back. Mai’s hand grows clammy from sweat, nestled amongst the leaves that cover what may be skin— or maybe it is skin. She doesn’t know how much of Kaito Helheim has claimed. 

She wants to look back. Fear crawls up her throat. What if this isn’t Kaito? What if it is, but all they can leave with is whatever twisted thing the forest made him into? What if they’ve been tricked, and all she’s doing is leading a piece of the forest into the city? 

She glances at Kouta and sees the same doubts playing on his face. “Kouta,” she says softly when his eyes dart around.

His eyes find hers again. 

“We have to trust Kaito,” she says. “That he’ll come back with us.”

Kouta looks nervous, but he nods. 

The forest gives way to the cityscape, standing tall and proud over Helheim’s constant push forward. She wants to break into a run at the sight. Free herself from this forest, from the fear and from the panic that threatens to swallow her whole.

“Just a little further,” Kouta says, taking a deep breath. “We got this.”

They trust each other more than they trust their own fear. It’s the only thing getting them through. This is a dance, and Kouta has always been the partner supporting her steps when she needed guidance the most. 

They leave the forest behind. Concrete and glass welcomes them home. 

“Do you think it’s safe to look back?” Kouta asks.

Mai takes another step forward. Kaito’s hand is still in hers, still inhuman. She is terrified of what they’ve been left with.

But it’s safe. The forest is behind them now, waiting for their response. 

She meets Kouta’s eye, and she nods. They turn in tandem.

Kaito looks at them both. Fully human, fully real, fully the person she had hoped to see. 

She lets go of his hand. A single leaf flutters down to the ground in the space between him. 

He is home. 

Not in sync, but together all the same.


End file.
